Forging the way in the breakbeat and hardcore scenes of the ’90’s, 4hero‘s Mark “Marc Mac” Claire and Dennis “Dego” McFarlane haven’t been content to lay dormant in these years, continuing to release records that explore the sounds of nu jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Now a resident of New York City, Dego focuses much of his energy on his 2000Black label (appropriately named after the Roy Ayers song) where he shares Ayers’ auspicious hopes about the black community’s future with a roster of future-minded artists. Dego’s role in 4hero not only positions him to play curator to the next generation of influential artists, it obviously makes him an excellent, crate-digging DJ. Dego’s recent mix for SpineTV has these talents on display, adding particular insight into Dego’s awareness of what’s current in the UK electronic music scene. Young hopeful James Blake makes an appearance, alongside new tracks from Martyn and Wiley, fleshing out an eclectic mix that spans Dilla to McCartney. A tracklist and link to the mix are below.

A few years ago we at Strange Fruit spend lots of time and money on a genre called broken beat. If we look back and can choose an era between 2000 and 2010 that shaped us the most then it must be this period. It looked like it all came finally together. Afrobeat, jazz-funk, 2-step, soul & p-funk!. Unfortunately we’ve never been to the Club evening called CO-OP at Plastic People in London which was the center of this movement. Luckily we had the Jazzsole crew in our hometown Rotterdam who brought this amazing sounds to us. We must thank to Umberto en Egbert of the Jazzsole crew for bringing the future to us.

We’ve got the feeling that in years from now a lot off people will be looking for the tunes made guys like 4Hero, Ig Culture, Afronaught, Daz-I-Kue, Marc de Clive Lowe, Domu, Eska, Seiji, Bembe Segue, Viktor Duplaix, Kaidi Tatham and all people that where involved in this. If you wanna go a little bit deeper in this sound then you have to check the article Mr Beatnick did on broken beats for FACT magazine. Of course there s always gonna be a discussion which tunes should be in this top 20 and which tunes don’t belong there. But we are sure that you have to admit that this top 20 consists of great tracks. Click for the full article here.

We told you a few weeks ago that there s a new silhouette brown album coming. The 10th of February will be de date.

Silhouette Brown is a super group which consists of Dego (4 Hero) and Kaidi Tatham (Bugz in the Attic). Both are respected musicians, producers in their own way. We at Strange Fruit are getting excited about this second album of Silhouette Brown. The first samples that we ve heard do sound promising. The album is not really aimed at the dancefloor and is more on a headnod tip. Guest on “Two” include hiphop legend Sadat X, M.D. Akwasie on the boogie anthem Strawberries in Vinegar and ofcourse Bembe Segue. You can click here for some sounds this upcoming album

Silhouette Brown is a project by former West London masterminds Dennis “Dego” McFarlane and Kaidi Tatham, whose first album involved Deborah Jordan on vocals.

First rumours on a second album were confirmed as a direct result to posting that DJ set from Dego the other week (don’t ask, it was removed). According to a blog post on Silhouette Brown’s MySpace page, “two” was written and produced by the trio of Bembe Segue, Dego and Kaidi. Support on the vocals comes from Lady Alma, who was already involved on the 2000Black album, some Blakai tracks and of course on Hold It Down(among others). I take it that Bembe will also be featured as a singer, apart from that Sadat X is having a guest spot.

The album will come out on Dego’s own 2000Black label in early 2010. I have a feeling that this follows the long tradition of early Japan releases, with the rest of the world waiting for several months. But I got my fingers crossed.